President Biden pressed for reducing gas prices with federal and state gas tax holidays, while also calling on the oil industry to refine more fuel and laying much of the blame for the high costs on Putin's invasion of Ukraine. "There are actions we can take to help American families now. We have taken them. We are taking them. A federal gas tax holiday. State gas tax holiday. Bringing back refineries. Putting them back online. We just have to keep going," he said.

Closing Bell

President Biden Calls for Suspending Gas Tax Amid High Fuel Prices

All right. President biden speaking now on inflation and let's take a listen every time you go to the gas station to fill your tank, The federal government charges an 18 cents tax per gallon of gas that you purchase And a 24 cent tax per gallon of diesel you purchase. It's a tax that's been around for 90 years. It's important because we use it for the highway trust fund to keep our highways going. But what I'm proposing is suspending the federal gas tax without affecting the highway trust fund. And here's how we do that. The tax revenues up this year and our deficit down over $1.6 trillion dollars this year alone, we'll still be able to fix our highways and bring down prices of gas. We can do both at the same time By suspending the 18 cent gas tax, federal gas tax for the next 90 days. We can bring down the price of gas and give families just a little bit of relief. I call on the companies to pass this along every penny of this 18th century deduction to the consumers. This is, there's no time now for profiteering. There are a number of other proposals by democrats in the House and the Senate and I hope my call for action can help move those proposals forward as well. But we can also cut gas prices even more in another way. That's why the second action I'm taking is calling on states to either suspend the state gas tax as well or find other ways to deliver some relief State gas taxes averaged 30 cents per gallon. Already, some states have acted in Connecticut and new york. The governors have temporarily suspended their gas tax as well. In Illinois and colorado. Governor's delayed, there's to give families a bit more breathing room as well. In Minnesota Governor walZ proposes using state budget surpluses to give households a rebate that will help them pay for gas at the pump rather and essential needs. I'm calling on more states and local governments to take actions like these thanks to our historic economic recovery, which fortified state budgets that had been hurt in the pandemic states are now in a strong position to be able to afford to take some of these actions. I fully understand that the gas tax holiday alone is not going to fix the problem, but it will provide families some immediate relief. It's a little bit of breathing room as we continue working to bring down prices for the long haul. Third, I'm calling on the industry to refine more oil into gasoline and to bring down gas prices. Let me explain. I know my republican friends claim we're not producing enough oil and I'm limiting oil production. Quite frankly. That's nonsense. Here's the truth. Just this month, America produced 12 million barrels of oil per day. That's the highest. That's higher than average under my predecessor and we're on track to set a new record for production next year plus I've added to that supply of oil by releasing a record one million barrels of oil per day from what's called the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. In fact, I just led the world to coordinate the largest release of global oil reserves in history, including from other countries. In total, that's 240 million barrels to boost global supply. And republicans falsely claim that I'm blocking production on federal lands. But again, that's nonsense. Industry has more approved permits for production on federal lands than they can possibly use. That's a fact. My administration also directed the sale of gasoline using home grown biofuels, ethanol E 15 this summer, which will boost gasoline supplies and lower the price at thousands of gas stations across America. And I welcome the recent announcement from what's known as the opec plus A group of nearly two dozen oil producing nations to increase global oil supply. The bottom line is, we are setting records in terms of american energy production. We're supplementing that supply with the release from our oil reserves. So the issue is an oil production alone. The problem is the refining of that oil and the gas at the pump during the pandemic. Some oil and gas companies shut down refining facilities last week, I sent a letter to the Ceos of the largest oil refining companies asking them to work with my administration to bring refineries back online to get more gas to the pump at lower prices. The Secretary of Energy jennifer Granholm and members of my team will be meeting with many of these refining companies tomorrow, I hope they'll come up to the table with some real ideas and practical steps in the near term and I'm prepared to act quickly and decisively on the recommendations. If they make sense to address the immediate challenge in front of us and the american people. Finally, when the cost of oil does come down, we need the price at the gas stations that they charge at the pump to come down as well. For example, In the last two weeks, the price of oil has fallen by more than $10 a barrel. Normally this reduced the cost of the pump about 25 cents a gallon. Yet so far, gas stations have only reduced prices by a few cents a gallon. Some haven't reduced prices at all. I've heard plenty of explanations from companies and economists about why it normally takes time for these price reductions to reach the consumer. I might know the price of a barrel of oil goes up. It doesn't make take make take much time for the price at the pump to go up. So let's be honest with each other. My message is simple to the company's running gas stations and setting those prices at the pump. This is a time of war. Global peril Ukraine. These are not normal times. Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you are paying for the product. Do it now, do it today. Your customers, the american people. They need relief now. So let me summarize today, I'm calling for a federal gas tax holiday, state gas tax holiday for the equivalent relief to customers. Oil companies to use their profits to increase refining capacity rather than buy back their own stock gas stations to pass along the decree, not the decree, but the decrease in oil prices to lower prices at the pump. And together these actions could help drop the price at the pump by up to $1 a gallon or more. It doesn't reduce all the pain, but it would be a big help. I'm doing my part. I want the Congress States and the industry to do their part as well. And let's remember how we got here, Putin invaded Ukraine. Putin invaded Ukraine 100,000 forces. Just look at the facts. Since the start of the war in Ukraine this year, Gas prices have risen by almost $2 a gallon in the United States and sometimes more around the world. But it wasn't just Putin's invasion of Ukraine. It was the refusal of the United States and the rest of the free world to let Putin get away with something we haven't seen since World War II. I said at the time, siding with Ukraine during the most serious aggression in europe since world War, defending freedom, defending democracy was not going to go without cost for the american people and the rest of the free world? We were going to have to pay a price as well in the cost of military equipment, economic assistance, humanitarian relief and sanctioned Russian banking industries. Russia is also the largest or one of the largest oil producers in the world. We cut off Russian oil into the United States and our partners in europe did the same knowing that we would see higher gas prices. We could have turned a blind eye to Putin's murderous ways. The price of gas wouldn't have spiked the way it has. I believe that would have been wrong. I believe that then, I believe then, and I believe now the free world had no choice. America could not stand by and the west could not have stood by, although some suggested at the top and just watch Putin's tanks rolling Ukraine and sees a sovereign country. If we did stand by, Putin wouldn't have stopped, Putin would have kept going and we face an even steeper price. And it wasn't just me. American people understood american people rose to the moment. American people did what they always have done, defend freedom around the world. They chose to stand with the people of Ukraine. We had near unanimous support in the Congress, democrats, republicans and independents for supporting Ukraine knowing full well the cost. So for all those republicans in Congress criticized me today for high gas prices in America? Are you now saying we were wrong to support Ukraine? Are you saying we were wrong to stand up to Putin? Are you saying that we would rather have lower gas prices in America and Putin's iron fist in europe? I don't believe that. Look, I get the easy politics of the attack, I get that. But the simple truth is, gas prices are up almost $2 a gallon because Vladimir Putin's ruthless attack on Ukraine and we wouldn't let him get away with it. We're doing everything we can to reduce this pain at the pump now. And if those experience has shown us anything is that we need to grow and harness more energy here at home, let's lower the price of electric vehicles. So we never have to pay the pump in the first place. Major auto companies are preparing for 50 Future sales to be electric vehicles by 2030 100% by 2035. We're already building secure supply chains to build these electric vehicles here in America And we're investing almost $100 billion dollars in public transit in rail for all the studies show that it will take millions of cars off the road and significantly reduce pollution if there's a serious transportation system available, let's keep accelerating our deployment of homegrown resources sources of energy like solar and wind and nuclear and hydrogen and carbon capture stories and keep developing the battery technologies so we can store that power we need when the sun doesn't shine or the wind doesn't blow folks. Let's make sure we're never again forced to pay the price of a menacing dictator halfway around the world, we can deal with the media this immediate crisis of high gas prices and still sees the clean energy future. We're americans, we can do both were the most qualified people in the world. Let me close this even as we lead the world in defending democracy is standing up to a brutal autocrat. There are actions we can take to help american families now we have taken. We are taking federal gas tax holiday, state gas tax, bringing back refineries, putting them back online. We just have to keep going. I promise you I'm doing everything possible everything possible to bring the price of energy down gas prices down. I want to make sure we all work on this together. May God bless you all and may God protect our troops. Thank you very much. President. You're just listening to President biden speaking from the White House about record high gas prices here in the U. S. Records nearly day after day as we head into the summer months and the president speaking asking companies and states and local governments to spend gas taxes for three months and also calling on the oil and gas industry to take action on refining more oil into gas to ease price pressures and increased supply does come as W. T. I. Crude remains above $100 a barrel and I do want to bring in cheddar news is Megan prats who is live for us from our Washington D. C. Studio for more on what we just heard Megan. It's good to see you. What were your takeaways from what the president had to say? Well, this was a wide ranging speech, wasn't it? Kristen we heard a lot and at the end apparently this speech about producing more oil was actually about climate change and green energy. I mean, look, the president is really, really stuck between a rock and a hard place. I've said this ad nauseam and I will say it, I'm sure many more times he cannot really win on this issue. And so he's trying to find ways to take some sort of action at a time when he is powerless. He cannot actually get rid of the federal gas tax unilaterally. Congress has to do that even for a short term suspension. Currently that's about $18. I'm sorry, 18 cents, $18 would be nice, 18 cents a gallon on regular premium unleaded fuel And about 21 cents per gallon on diesel. He's asking for Congress to suspend both for about three months to try to bring those costs down. Now of course that adds up for American families. But I would also point out that it does not add up to that much. Right? Let's say you have a 20 gallon tank and 18 cents is less. You're still only going to save $3.60 on filling up. That is going to add up, but not to as much as it feels like it's more of a psychological game, right? Because when you're looking at those prices on the side of the road, the station that has 18 cents less is going to feel like it's going to have a huge impact on your bottom line. The president also going very hard in a pattern. We've seen a few times against oil and gas company saying that they're not doing enough to bring prices down, that they're making record high profits. They need to be refining more oil and gas that more oil and gas is currently being refined or brought to the surface here in the US than has been in the previous administration. The trump administration and that they are not lowering prices in the way that they should be that because people are willing to pay these higher prices well, they'll keep prices up that supply and demand. And it's true, that's basic, really, really basic economics, right? Supply is lower demand is higher prices go up. And if people are willing to pay those prices, why bring them back down? The problem is that the President pays a political price. So for him, it's politically advantageous for those prices to come back down. And as you mentioned, oil price is still very high lower than they have been though. He said. Oil prices should have indicated about a 25 cent cut at the pump. We haven't seen that yet, so clearly things aren't exactly where they should be. I also would point out this was a really interesting multimedia style presentation. We couldn't see the whole screen behind the President, but clearly an effort for this administration and the multimedia team at the White House to make this topic that is frankly a little bit wonky, a little bit more interactive Kristin. So basically the President can't do much calling on Congress and state governors to do more, but otherwise he can't take a lot of action even if he calls it action on paper. Yeah. Megan. Of course, we are going to get another opec meeting next week on thursday which could dictate just the amount of production and exports we actually see across the country and the President traveling to Saudi Arabia the biggest exporter of oil around the world in july. So no doubt here, I think the President squarely focused on inflation as we've been reporting together here after the past month or so.